White House opens up on open source: The White House launched a resource page for developers to access freely available data and code assets, stating “We believe in using and contributing back to open source software as a way of making it easier for government to share data…” (Fed Scoop)

Governments getting better at presenting data: Governments around the world are getting better at presenting data about specific issues in ways that are useful to the general public, but also achieve specific policy and communications goals. Specific examples include Recovery.gov and the new Italian site OpenCoesione. (Tech President)

Riding the open data wave in Hawaii: Open Data in Hawaii is a collaborative effort. The Honolulu open data community has the support of city leaders and the backing of community groups like Hawaii Open Data. (Government Technology)

Campaign Finance

Swing states, small donations? The states with the highest average donations in the presidential race are among the least competitive this November. Residents of Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New York, and Wyoming have averaged more than $150 when donating this year. (Washington Post)

Opinion – Disclose all the ads! The internet allows politicians to specifically target their advertisements in ways that are not possible in other mediums, potentially letting candidates take as many different positions as their are opinions on an issue. The author argues that the FEC should require all online advertisements to be made available on publicly available websites. (Politico)

International

Holding companies accountable in Slovakia: Transparency International Slovakia launched rankings of state and city-owned companies this summer. They tested a number of corruption related catagories and found that many companies scored poorly. (Transparency International)

Despite reform, most Burmese still can’t access the internet: Despite recent efforts by the repressive regime ruling Burma (Myanmar) to liberalize areas of its government there are major barriers facing technology growth in the country. Currently, only 0.2 percent of the population has Internet access and only 1 in 100 citizens owns a cell phone. (Tech President)